Men's Swimming & Diving Headline

Friday January 3, 2014Florida Swimming Begins 2014 Season with Dual Against Florida State on Saturday

The
third ranked Florida men (4-0, 3-0 SEC) and fifth ranked Florida women (2-2,
2-1 SEC) will host No. 16 Florida State men (3-0, 2-0 ACC) and No. 23 Florida
State women (5-1, 2-0 ACC) in a dual meet at 1 p.m. in the O’Connell Center on
Saturday. The Gators will compete in the first of four duals in the final tune
up before the start of the Southeastern Conference Championships on Feb. 18.

Florida
enters the meet with nine NCAA automatic qualifying cuts, four for the men and
five for the women. Twenty-nine Gators have secured NCAA provisional marks. The
Gators have also qualified all five relays for both teams to the NCAA
Championships.

Sounds
Bites: “We
have not competed since the end of November. We’re real tired because we trained
very well in December. Tomorrow will give us a chance to see where we are after
training hard for six weeks. I am looking forward to going against a good
opponent and evaluating what we need to do from this point forward.”- Head
Coach Gregg Troy.

First
Meeting: Both
UF teams opened up the year with a victory at the Pinch A Penny All Florida
Invitational. Florida men finished with 1,269 points to second place Florida
State’s 970 points. UF women ended up with 1,146 points to second place Florida
State’s 798 points.

Series
History: Florida
men lead Florida State 52-23-1 all-time. The Gator women lead the Seminoles
39-3 all-time.

Last
Time Out: Over
the course of the three-day Ohio State Invitational, the Orange and Blue
registered 22 NCAA Championship automatic qualifying times, qualified all relays
to the NCAA Championships and broke six school records.

·Alicia Mathieu shattered Florida’s 25-year old
record in the 1650 freestyle, winning the event in an NCAA ‘A’ cut mark of
15:46.17.

·Natalie Hinds broke her school record in the
100 freestyle, winning in an NCAA ‘A’ cut time of 47.67.

Men’s
Dual Streak: The Gator men have gone 19 straight dual meets without dropping
a dual, a record that dates back to Jan. 21, 2011.

We’re
On TV: Sun
Sports will air a 60-minute show at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 12. Larry Vettel and
Tina Bates will be on the call. The meet will also air on Monday, Jan 20, at
9:30 p.m. and on Wednesday, Jan. 22, at 11:00 p.m.

Follow
Live: Florida
Swim Network will carry the meet live.

Fan
Information: Parking
will be available in the O’Connell Center parking lot garage. Please note that
men’s basketball game begins at 3 p.m. and there could be additional traffic. The
first 75 kids in attendance will receive a signed Florida Swimming and Diving
poster.

Schedule
of Events:

400
Medley Relay

1,000
Freestyle

200
Freestyle

100
Back

100
Breast

200
Fly

50
Free

100
Free

200
Back

200
Breast

500
Free

100
Fly

400
IM

200
Free Relay

*Men’s
100 free, 200 free and 500 free will have two heats. Women’s 200 free and 400
IM will have two heats.

Follow
the Gators: For
all the latest on Florida swimming and diving, stay tuned to GatorZone.com. To
stay connected socially, ‘like’ Florida Swimming and Diving on Facebook and
follow the Gators, @GatorZoneSwimDv, on Twitter.